The Naples City Council voted Wednesday to award a $313,650 contract to McCulley Marine Servicesto build nine 500-ton reefs in two locations off the Collier coast. This year Marco Island and the county approved similar projects totaling $1.3 million.
"I'm very excited about this. It's a good recycling project," said Councilman Sam Saad, who made the motion to approve the project.
The reefs will occupy six sites ranging between 12 and 27 miles offshore and will be primarily built of 500-ton concrete units spaced along the sea floor.
The projects will be funded almost entirely by grants from BP Exploration and Production in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In addition to Naples' grant, Collier and Marco each received $500,000. The grants were awarded in 2012 and 2013, but the plans weren't finalized until this summer, said Chris D'Arco, senior environmental specialist with Collier's Coastal Zone Management Department.
The project is in the final phases of permitting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and work is expected to begin in late this month or early November and wrap up by March 2015.
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